As a conveyor belt, which is one of conveyor chains for loading articles thereon to convey them, a conveyor belt in which a rotatable ball or roller is provided in a belt module forming the conveyor belt and the articles are handled during conveyance to slide them toward a lateral side and discharge them, has been known (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-182829).
In the above-mentioned conveyor belt a belt module on which articles are loaded is formed of an integrated structure stacked by an upper first member and a lower second member, hinge portions respectively formed on the first member and the second member are joined to form a hinge portion of a belt module, and this belt modules are connected to each other with hinge pins to form the conveyor belt. This belt module includes rotatable balls or rollers and is adapted so that an article conveyed by a conveyor belt is slid on a belt to be discharged toward a lateral side. An opening portion is formed in the first member and the second member respectively, and when the first member and the second member are joined with each other, a ball-receiving portion is formed so that a ball can be rotatably held on the ball receiving portion.
Patent Reference 1 is Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-182829.